{"id":525934,"date":"2026-03-08T03:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/525934\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T03:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:18:09","slug":"ian-huntley-dead-after-prison-attack-in-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/525934\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Huntley dead after prison attack in UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former school caretaker who killed<\/a> two young girls in theUK<\/a> has died after being attacked in prison<\/a>.Ian Huntley, who was serving a life sentence for killing Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, had his life support switched off after being hit over the head repeatedly with a metal bar at Frankland Prison in north-east England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His death was announced in a short statement by the Durham Constabulary.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Holly Wells, left, and Jessica Chapman, were missing for two weeks before their bodies were discovered. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Ian Huntley, 52, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following an incident in the workshop on the morning of Thursday, February 26,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“A police investigation into the circumstances into the incident is ongoing.”<\/p>\n

Huntley was convicted of the murders in 2003, which attracted worldwide attention.<\/p>\n

Wells and Chapman had been missing for nearly two weeks after they left a barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire on August 4, 2002.<\/p>\n

The case captivated the country, with a photo of the two girls wearing matching Manchester United soccer shirts being widely circulated in newspapers and in television news bulletins.<\/p>\n

Their bodies were found when a group of hikers discovered the girls’ remains beside a dirt path in a wooded area a few miles from the village.<\/p>\n

\"MultipleMultiple attempts were made on Huntley’s life during his time in prison. (AP)<\/p>\n

Huntley denied murdering the two girls, and even spoke often to reporters during the search.<\/p>\n

His partner, Maxine Carr was a teaching assistant at the girls’ school, and was convicted of giving Huntley a false alibi.<\/p>\n

She was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment for perverting the course of justice. She now lives under a new identity.<\/p>\n

Multiple attempts were made on Huntley’s life while he was imprisoned, and he was kept under close protection along with other notorious killers.<\/p>\n

In one incident in 2010, his throat was slashed by another inmate.<\/p>\n

British media have reported that murderer and rapist Anthony Russell, 43, was responsible for the attack that ultimately led to Huntley’s death.<\/p>\n

No charges have been laid.<\/p>\n

Reported with Associated Press\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former school caretaker who killed two young girls in theUK has died after being attacked in prison.Ian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-525934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}